Before diving head first into a lake, I’d rather be the guy who waits to see how deep the water is.
With all of the new changes announced yesterday to Facebook at their F8 conference, we have come full circle. Facebook is back to a beginning. Marketers are already salivating at the new Facebook…but please just slow down a second.
The new features and layout will provide a new way for users to use Facebook. As I tweeted yesterday:
Q: So what should a marketer do?
A: Wait.
Facebook is back to a beginning. As when they first started as a new social networking platform Facebook is not exactly sure how users are going to use these new features. The mob will decide, not marketers. So rather than grabbing your marketing team and budget and running full speed into the abyss. Wait.
There is no way for you to know how all of these new features will be used, or not used. Rather than trying to jump in and take advantage just slow down cowboy.
Understand that the reason people are on Facebook is not to learn about your new products or interact with brands. Yes users can and do interact with brands, but this is not their primary motivation for Facebook. No one is going to update their timeline with what they’re cooking with the hope that Kraft comments on their wall.
Social media marketing rarely awards the spoils to the first adopters. The winners are those who understand user’s motivations and activities and then play seamlessly into those activities. Monitor your friends and see how they adapt. Don’t look at other marketers profiles because we don’t count. Look at your old high-school friend with no reason to be on Facebook other than she wants to be. These are the real users, not you.
Use this time to truly study the users. Facebook has changed, it’s users will change with it. See you on the other side.
Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media. He is an avid blogger and active across the net. He is @thescottbishop on Twitter.
